Monthly Archives: June 2013

Glance at your favorite news site and you’ll come face to face with a human obsession, SEEKING! That is right, seeking. As I scrolled through the news on one small screen people were seeking information in two court cases, seeking a ship’s location lost in Lake Michigan, seeking championships in several sports, and finally, a grand search for health and beauty. We are obsessed with seeking!

News sources know in the Internet world they have a millisecond to capture a viewer’s attention. A person’s very presence logging onto a news site represents a search, a search for what is happening in the world. But news sources know connecting people with a deeper search inside their mind causes them to linger on their site.

Humanities obsession with seeking propels men and women toward incredible joys or deep depravity. Jesus’ words recording in Matthew 7:7-8 encourage us, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” A person who seeks depravity, will certainly find it. A person knocking on the door of things yielding temporary fame or victory will find him or herself wanting more in the near future.

Pause and consider what you have been seeking. Is it beauty, health, fame, victory, financial security, justice, freedom? Pause again. Now consider a question from Oswald Chambers in his brilliant “old school” devotional “My Utmost for His Highest.” He asks, “Have you ever sought God with your whole heart?”

This question cuts to the heart. I love God. I’ve tried to honor and serve Him. I’ve prayed; I have read my Bible almost every single day of the past several decades. I’ve even had patterns of fasting, journaling, and sitting in contemplative silence . . . but have I ever sought God with my whole heart?

The second half of Chamber’s sentence may require pulling out a dictionary, but when understood the sentence brings stark conviction.

Chamber’s wrote, “Have you ever sought God with your whole heart or have you only given a languid cry to Him after a twinge of moral neuralgia?” I pondered that statement and recognized too often I seek God because I know I should. I know it is the right thing to do. Sometimes love acts that way. Love is commitment and because I love God I commit to daily have time meeting with Him. But Chambers challenges our seeking to go far beyond this. He challenges us to seek Him with our “whole heart!”

As you have read these thoughts consider three steps:

Step 1: Take a look at your life. Understanding your thoughts, actions, and motivations, what are you seeking with your whole heart?

Step 2: Consider how you would answer Chamber’s question- “Have you ever sought God with your whole heart or have you only given a languid cry to Him after a twinge of moral neuralgia?”

Step 3: Visualize what seeking God with your whole heart looks like. Determine the first step you need to take to move in that direction. Seek God, and take the step!